Sunday, August 30, 2009

Yeah, these folks seem to be enjoying an, uh, odd repose. And as commenter Shay has said, the cats don't seemed thrilled by the shenanigans. And then guess who should appear?

I would give a h/t to Todd the Blogger, who ran this picture, sans Crasher Squirrel, a day or two ago on his blog - but I snatched, I mean copied this picture to my blogger folder last week (with C. Squirrel), so technically I didn't borrow it from him...

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Some months ago, I noted on these same interweb pages that I was going to attempt to solidify my cinematic savoir-faire by watching some older films, and also expanding my kids' cultural literacy (borrowing that phrase from Ed Hirsch). This past weekend's crop was no Casablanca, or On the Waterfront, but it was kinda fun.

Smokey and the Bandit - Hey, I said it weren't no Casablanca. Classic, campy Burt Reynolds, with a reminder of all that CB-speak we knew and loved in the, gasp!, '70s. Yeah, I remember how cool I thought the telephone-shaped [RadioShack] CB was in my parents' Fleetwood. Rollin' down I-45 to the San Jacinto Inn for dinner, talking on the phone. Wow, we were livin' large back then. Sally Fields, with a very cute tush (Dewey, Todd, or Shay - provide your own Boniva quips here. I run a classy blog here with an elevated level of discourse, so I must refrain. No, really, I must.). Actually, I preferred Sally Fields in Murphy's Romance, but, unfortunately, that film probably qualifies as a chick-flick. Oh, and Jackie Gleason turned in a pretty good performance.

Last, but definitely not the least, Young Frankenstein - I probably hadn't seen this film since the '80s. From the film noire treatment (that's black and white to my less sophisticated readers - as though reading this blog was not sufficient ipso facto evidence of lack of sophistication - sophistry, sophomoric, yes/sophistication, ah, not so much), to the comedy genii of Wilder and Brooks. A tour de force cast performing farce at its best. I don't know how the heck you could work with Marty Feldman and keep a straight face (alas, he left us in 1982 at the too-young age of 48. Much too close to home). And Teri Grrrr. I said, Teri Grrrr - lovely. The only troubling thing is, and I keep wondering, if I go buy some Monster Energy drink, will it, um, boost my Schwanzstücker? Oh, one more. I can now correctly place all of Mrs. Terra Mako's references from the movie.

Well, this has been old movie review. By the way, the kids enjoyed all of these.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Unless you were born in Russia or something, or you're a socialist (wait a minute...no, I don't mean anything in code by that), you know that everything tastes better with bacon, so I offer the following herewith:

(Mmm, baby your lips taste just like bacon!)

Now that's just downright seductive, huh?

Disclaimer: The preceding photos were "borrowed" from Denney Crane or Landshark's blog - I don't quite remember which at the moment.

Monday, August 17, 2009

By now you've of course seen the squirrel (right) who crashed the newlyweds' honeymoon picture near a mountain lake. And, by their (the couple, sans rodent) appearance on one of the morning "news" outlets, we're assured that the photo is real, not faked.

The following photos are, predictably, faked, or photoshopped. It pains me that I got this from BSG's blog, but, hey, if the material is good, you're not supposed to complain where it comes from.

So, enjoy.

h/t: LLFTLODQ (BSG)

Update: I had to think about posting this one, but decided that our Lord probably has a sense of humor and would like it. Regarding the WWII pic, I'd have used Mt. Suribachi at Iwo Jima, but that's just me. I also think the pop-up varmint would've been funny on one of the steps of Marine One as R. Milhous Nixon famously gave the 'V for Victory' just prior to leaving the White House Lawn for the last time.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

I know many of you read this blog for exciting automotive, motorcycle, and technology news. Heck, if I didn't have access to such restricted sources like MSN, AOL, Motor Trend, and Auto Week, I'd probably do the same.

(Me, before shaving my head and going to bed with my upper torso wrapped in Rogaine and Saran Wrap - just ignore the autograph.)

Word has reached the editorial staff here at Sonnet 116 that Lorenzo Lamas, he of Renegade fame (?), is launching a line of custom motorcycles, leveraging his, um, image from the '90s TV series. (Yeah, based on that show, I went and bought a Yamaha Virago, which sat in my garage for five years, much to the chagrin of the former Mrs.).

(Take that on a road trip, Todd the Blogger)

Now, I don't mean to poke fun [excessively], but, looking at the drawings (not even prototypes), I have to say they're lame. The clean, spare lines of the 'Reno Rocket', above, are æsthetically pleasing, but who in their right mind would want to ride that thing with their tail feathers mere inches from a fat chunk of spinning rubber?

Every day I get the feeling that the people writing news stories are twenty-somethings who just missed the cut for Leno's Jaywalking segments.

This morning I read a tagline stating that Ford was unveiling a 45th Anniversary Mustang - Named for Famed '80s Businessman. OK, a 45th anniversary 'Stang sounds cool, so I clicked on the article, thinking "When did the blue oval start naming car editions for famous businesspeople?"

Well, it seems the "'80s Businessman" is none other than one Lee A. Iacocca, former Chrysler CEO, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Chairman, iconic pitchman, responsible for the acquisition of the Jeep brand and development of the K-cars, diabetes research patron, and former President of Ford Motor Company, and a driving force behind the introduction of the Mustang in 1964 (becoming President of the Ford Division later that year).

But, from reading the article, you'd never know any of that - he was just some '80s business dude. Current J-school grads wouldn't know Abe Lincoln from Abe Vigoda...

Thursday, August 6, 2009

I've previously established that I don't go to see first-run movies, on account of I'm too cheap poor to spend $8 a ticket for movies that, quite often, are not too good. So, this past weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to have seen two good movies at the dollar movie theatre.

The first was Eddie Murphy's Imagine That. The boys didn't really want to join us (my daughter and me) for this one, but the show they wanted to see wasn't on in a compatible time slot, so they hung with us. The synopsis is that a divorced father comes to understand the meaning of being involved in his daughter's life. Also starring Thomas Haden Church and Martin Sheen, Murphy casts off the stigma of those awful, gimmicky movies where he plays 14 roles, and gets back to straight-forward acting. Rated PG, I wasn't embarrassed for my daughter, and yet the boys, both teenagers, still enjoyed it.

The next afternoon, we sought respite from the heat and went for the latest release of Night at the Museum - The Smithsonian. I'm normally not much on CGI as I think it often gets in the way of plot, or worse, substitutes for it, but the effects in Night were great, and totally supported the story. Also very family friendly. I don't know if it's less enjoyable if one doesn't have a good grasp of history (I liked Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for the same reason), but my daughter fully enjoyed the movie. The boys chose not to join on this one, but afterward, based on their reviews of what they did see, I think they'd have liked ours better.

Tonight I was in the Dollar General and noticed they have Mountain Men on DVD, starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith (the actor, not the blogger). How cool is that? Moses/NRA Icon and Uncle Bill/Hardcastle in the same movie. Answer: Not cool enough for me to shell out $10 for it. I checked later on Wiki, the movie was made in 1980!